Dec 22

Dec 22 The Cookie Swap

We can all agree that Christmas cookies are one of the best things about this season, and our friends and family have set up one of the best ways to do it. The Cookie Swap is a great way to get a maximum diversity of cookies with minimum effort. What’s better than that? The biggest benefit, I think, is the opportunity to experiment a bit with something new.

If you don’t know what a cookie swap is and you think it sounds cool, here’s the deal!

The premise is simple, you make lots of one kind of cookie (6-12 cookies per person participating), bring them to the swap, and you get an equal number in return, but of each variety that everyone brought. My wife and her friends have had a holiday cookie swap for a few years now, and I love it. We only have to purchase the ingredients for one kind of cookie, we only have to make one type of cookie. Once you are set up to make the dough and bake your cookies, it's much easier to make 10 dozen of one type of cookie, then to make 1 dozen of 10 different cookies, with different ingredients, different baking temperatures and a variety of baking skills. Specializing makes us much more efficient in the kitchen.

If you host your swap at a CT brewery you can have a flight and a cookie platter, those are a few of my favorite things.

The Rules

The first rule is to bake enough cookies for each person participating to get a predetermined amount AND you need to make one extra dozen so you have cookies to share at the night of the swap. As an example, if 7 people are baking, you need to make 8 dozens cookies. One dozen per baker to take home and one dozen to taste.

The second rule is packaging. You should package up your cookies in something that makes sharing easy, a bag, or box is sufficient. You don’t have to get too fancy here because most people will break the bags up to make a platter.

The unwritten rule of cookie swap (of our swap anyway) is an endless debate about what constitutes a cookie and what doesn’t. There are the obvious contenders (chocolate chip, oatmeal, sugar etc.) over which there is no argument. Bar cookies are also pretty clear cut - who doesn’t love a coconutty chocolate chip bar? Some hotly debated treats that fall into the gray area include: chocolate covered pretzels, fudge and chocolate and peanut butter saltines. There is no disagreement that these are delicious holiday desserts, however it is up to you and your cookie swap crew to approve these “outside the box” entries. We often opt for inclusion since variety is the spice of life and say the more the merrier.

To plan for a cookie swap you need to be clear about what people need to do participate. You need to identify what type of cookie each person will make and that there is no doubling up as there are frew things worse than 2 or more people making the same kind of cookie. After each person commits to a particlar cookie recipe, confirm the rules and get excited!

The last thing for advanced swapping groups to consider is about the platter outcome. Try to picture all these cookies together on a plate and which cookies might not play well with others. A frequent problem child is a buttercream frosted cookie that would need its own plate to avoid crosscontaminating of icing. Or something with an overwhelming flavor that might impact the taste of the other cookies.

The final rule of the cookie swap is that it’s all about fun! So let your cookie swap be an awesome fun tradition that lets everyone get together and eat cookies, maybe sip some beers, and spread some joy during the holiday season.

If you have a cookie swap or have any ideas to add, shoot us a message we would love to hear them.